As computer systems have become more widespread, there has been a concomitant driver for additional computer security. Private citizens and businesses alike must prevent malicious actors from reading their electronic mail, credit card, banking data, and personal medical records. Such protection relies upon encryption of data to provide privacy, and proper encryption depends upon the use of specialized cryptographic algorithms. These cryptographic algorithms are designed by mathematicians, specified by standards bodies, and implemented by programmers in a wide range of hardware and software computer systems. Unfortunately, the complexity of the cryptographic algorithms means that mistakes can easily be made that would render the encryption ineffective.
As a result, new cryptographic algorithms are constantly under development, and implementations of cryptographic algorithms must be carefully tested (or “validated” to ensure they are correct. For example, in the United States, Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) publications set forth standards for security and communication in computer systems used by government agencies and contractors, including definitions of cryptographic algorithms. The government also runs a Cryptographic Algorithm Validation Program to test implementations against these FIPS standards.
However, the formatting of the tests developed by an agency are necessarily complex, and the administration of these tests upon a computer systems very difficult. As a result, it may take a significant amount of time for the entity to modify or recreate their systems in a manner to be able to properly execute the tests. In addition, results from the tests may again be formatted suitable for the entity's computer systems, but not suitable for the agency for review and validation of the cryptographic algorithms and/or implementations.
Thus, there is a need for a technical solution to efficiently format, manipulate, and process tests for execution by entity computing systems that are having their algorithms and implementations tested and format the results generated thereby for validation by the standardization agency that negates the need for the entity or agency to heavily modify their systems, which would otherwise result in expenditure of both time and resources.